


Thick as Thieves

by lebensmuede



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Bank Robbery, Heist, Hijinks, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, Shenanigans, bank heist, james joins a thieving family, thieves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26118985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lebensmuede/pseuds/lebensmuede
Summary: Throw together a ragtag crew of thieves, an imprisoned uncle, one delighted James Sirius Potter, and a half baked plan for a bank heist and you get a disaster."This is going to work," Hamish said."This is not going to work," Ceilia deadpanned.





	Thick as Thieves

**Author's Note:**

> heavily inspired by ally carter's heist society

James Potter barely noticed the girl with short, ice blonde hair and piercing grey eyes who stumbled into him while he was out on the streets with his siblings one chilly August afternoon. He only saw her wide, innocent eyes as she stuttered out an apology, her eyes darting everywhere except his face, like a frightened animal. He didn't feel her hand slip into his jacket pocket to slip out his house key or the replacement that she left behind. If he was asked, he wouldn't have even been able to describe what she was wearing or anything beyond the startling colour of her hair. His siblings would've been hard pressed to remember there ever being a girl in the first place. Everything about her seemed almost designed to be forgotten.

James Potter should've known to be more careful about anyone watching his house. He should've kept a tighter hold on his belongings just in case someone wanted to relieve him of them. He should've been able to feel someone watching him, following him. James Potter should've known to do a lot of things that someone who had a father as famous as his.

But he didn't.

Laverna Nicholas had a small smile playing on her lips as she looked down at the small key in her hand attached to a figurine cat. She pocketed the key as her hair slowly changed back to brown and lengthened down her back.

* * *

_Don't get caught. Don't get caught._

It was like a mantra going through Laverna's head as she walked by the Potter household in broad daylight. She looked at the big house, and the crowd of people spread out on the lawn as if she were only a girl passing by. Her hand rested on the key in her pocket that one James Potter had so graciously allowed her to take from him only a few days ago. Nothing about her suggested that she was counting the windows of the house, the number of people on the lawn, or the entrance and exit to the backyard. With every step she took past the house she estimated how many steps it would take to reach the front door, or the broom shed in the back if an alternative plan was needed, the security spells that might be in place, wondering if there would be a wind blowing through in the evening to hide any noise she made.

Her gaze swept over the people on the lawn and the front door and finally landed on the boy who was already looking at her. It could only be James Potter with his messy hair and warm brown eyes looking at her with a somber expression.

But instead of thinking about the boy who saw her, Laverna instead thought about the fact that Apparating directly into their backyard was not an option if the steady stream of people popping up around the corner and streaming into the front lawn was any indication.

And so Laverna kept walking and walking and when she was far away from the house someone appeared next to her as if from nowhere and kept pace with her.

"So, are you still going to steal the cloak," Grace Nicholas asked her sister as they walked down the street side by side. Unlike her much shorter sister, Grace Nicholas was tall, with striking feline features, brown hair flowing in the wind. Laverna kept pace at her side, her hair twisted into a neat, low bun at the nape of her neck, her face impassive as her mind turned over every detail about the Potter's house.

"It would be a shame not to considering all the trouble I went to to get the key," Laverna said glancing at her sister briefly before turning her attention back to the bustling sidewalk full of muggles.

"Well, it's Harry Potter's house for one, and if you so much as even put one foot on their property without their permission, the Ministry could charge you a hefty fine," Grace replied. What she didn't say was if they don't arrest you and charge you with breaking and entering.

"It's not as if I'll get caught, I've done this before," Laverna said as she and her sister entered a coffee shop together. Laverna let out a shiver as the warm air chased away the brisk chill from outside. Her dark brown eyes scanned the coffee shop, taking in the different faces around her, the cameras in the corners of the room and by the cash register. Her lips were painted a bright red, the only identifiable feature that she allowed herself, a fact she was now regretting considering James had noticed her.

"Ahem, Paraguay -" Grace began in a sing-song voice.

"Would you all let that go," Laverna said with a tired sigh. Four months had passed since Laverna made one minor mistake on the job and no one would let her forget it. In her defense, it wasn't as if anyone had died, only shipped off to prison. People could always be broken out of prison, it was a lot harder to bring someone back from the dead.

"You got Uncle Felix thrown in jail!" Grace exclaimed loudly, drawing the eye of everyone within ten metres of the pair. Laverna made eye contact with every person that turned to stare at the two sisters and something about the level gaze made them all look away.

"Would you keep it down; it is not my fault that Uncle Felix decided to barge into the room in women's clothing and start claiming he was my mother after I said she was dead," Laverna hissed at her sister. "I was in the middle of shedding tears and everything."

She stepped slightly to the left of the man in front of her, craning her head to see how far from the front they were. Grace stumbled over her own feet as if on cue and sent the man tripping back into her sister. While Grace apologized profusely to him and he gave a distracted apology to Laverna, she had already slipped her hand into his pockets and taken his money.

"That was not the part that I was referring to, that was Uncle Felix's fault," Grace said as they moved forward in the line. They both watched the man in front of them order his coffee out of the corner of their eyes. They watched as he searched his pockets for the money that he was sure he'd brought with him but couldn't seem to find. The girl behind the counter grew more annoyed as the seconds ticked by.

Giving a dejected sigh, the man gave back the coffee and left the shop empty handed.

"Oh, so it's the fact that I tripped him as we were trying to run out now is it, two decafs please," Laverna added to the girl standing behind the counter.

"That's basically the same thing," Grace muttered, looking through the little packs of sugar on the side of the counter and quickly slipping about five up her sleeve.

"I tripped him as we were running, I did not sell him out, those are free you know, you don't have to be so sneaky about it," Laverna added, staring at Grace's sleeves pointedly. She smiled at the girl who handed her and Grace their coffee and handed over the cash.

"You know it was real nice of that man to fund our coffee addiction," Grace commented as the two of them exited the shop

"One good deed to make the world just a little better," Laverna agreed as she took a long sip of her cup. She couldn't stop the tilt of one corner of her mouth. "Excellent timing by the way, it was as if you read my mind."

"Teamwork makes the dream work," Grace said with a wink.

"Aunt Helena is going to be so proud of you, she keeps going on about how you'll make a great addition to the crew one day," she added, grinning down at her little sister. While Grace was almost six feet tall, Laverna was only five foot four, just about everyone looked towered over her.

"I'll be sure to tell Aunt Helena about this day when she's finished robbing the royal family of some of their finest china," Laverna said. The girls turned down a quiet but deserted street full of houses. Most of the houses on the street screamed wealth with their two car garage and Doric columns at the front door. The house that the two sisters were headed towards was not like the other houses, it was small and completely unmemorable.

From the way that people ignored it, you'd think it was invisible.

"What is it about Aunt Helena and Buckingham Palace?" Grace asked her sister, frowning. "She goes back there so often, it's like she's addicted to thrift shopping."

Grace gave a flick of her wand and with a small click, the front door silently swung open, letting the two of them in..

"We ran out of china, Hamish broke the entire set that we had trying to control that giant dog of his that he got from the pound," Laverna said, taking off her coat and shoes and putting them away. She and Grace followed the mouthwatering smell of food to the kitchen.

"Why did Hamish have a dog?" Grace asked as they entered the kitchen.

"Do you really want to know -what are you doing here?" Laverna asked abruptly. Sat at their kitchen table was their cousin Ceilia with a bowl of soup in front of her, lazily flipping through a muggle fashion magazine while wearing frilly, lace gloves. At the sound of Laverna's voice, she looked up and fixed her bored gaze on them.

"What, am I not allowed to visit?" Ceilia asked her cousins. "I cooked food by the way, it's in the pot, grab a plastic bowl and sit down."

"As much as I love having you visit and criticize my clothing and just about everything else about me, I thought you were trying to shake off Interpol," Laverna said, unable to hide the distaste from her voice.

"No, I dealt with them yesterday, by the way, your dad says hi," Ceilia added as Grace and Laverna sat down across from her at the kitchen table.

"What's dad doing lately, anyway?" Laverna asked.

"Off in Paris last I checked," Ceilia replied with a shrug. Laverna could feel her skin starting to prickle as she tried to rein in her irritation. Something about Ceilia and her bored demeanor managed to get under her skin like no one else could. Sometimes she wanted to shave off her cousins beautiful, glossy, black hair just to spite her.

"Why is he in Paris?" Grace asked, oblivious to the tension in her sister's shoulders.

"I'm sure there's an art gallery somewhere that requires his presence," Ceilia said, as she flipped another page in her magazine. "What do you two have planned for today?"

"Well, Laverna is going to rob the Potter household," Grace replied before Laverna could say anything. Ceilia snorted into her bowl of soup before wiping her nose with a napkin. Laverna could fill her hand itching to give a good swipe through the air and give her cousins hair a good chop.

"I'll come bail you out of jail, Lav darling," Ceilia said, finishing up her soup and putting her bowl in the kitchen sink. The way everyone kept going on about it, you'd think Laverna was trying to rob Gringotts instead of a household. Albeit, the household of the Saviour of the Wizarding World, but a household.

"I have a key," Laverna emphasized loudly since everyone kept forgetting. But Ceilia acted as if she hadn't said anything and shoved her chair away from the table with a loud scrape.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be getting my beauty sleep," Ceilia announced and flounced off in her five inch stiletto heels to claim one of the empty beds in the house. Laverna was both irritated and impressed with the ease with which her cousin balanced on her knife shoes.

"You've gotta hand it to her, she certainly knows how to make an exit," Grace said as she glanced upwards where Ceilia's heels could be heard clipping down the corridor.

No one was entirely sure how Aunt Helena had managed to secure herself a house. No matter how many times they asked her for the details, Aunt Helena either steered the conversation to a different topic or gave a bland smile and acted as if she hadn't heard.

"What are you gonna do to pass the time until you have to go?" Grace asked as she made her way into the living room and threw herself down on one of the couches.

"Probably go over the plan in my head about a million times and hope I don't sike myself out of it," Laverna replied, taking the other available seat. The worst part was always the waiting. Her sister nodded off to sleep almost immediately on the couch while Laverna stared up at the ceiling, so many thoughts flying through her head that she couldn't form a single coherent one.

The hours seemed to crawl by as Laverna waited and she tried not to think about the doubtful words of her cousins. If she let them get to her she'd make another blunder and this time there wouldn't be any Uncle Felix to trip.

No matter how long she lay on the couch with her eyes closed, sleep seemed to evade her. She could've cheered when the time finally came for her to head out. She'd changed into thin, skin-tight black clothing and briefly debated whether she wanted to bring a cloak with her or not.

When she stood shivering on the stoop of the house in the chilly night air, any thoughts of walking to the Potter's house disappeared while she simultaneously regretted opting out of the cloak.

Apparating was a big no for thieves, it made it far too easy for the Ministry to track where you were. They'd know where you'd gone and it just made you a lot easier to catch. With this knowledge in mind, Laverna and the rest of her family all had their license under a different name. As far as the Ministry was concerned, Mary O'Neill was out for a romantic rendezvous.

The minute she materialized, Laverna took a leisurely pace towards the house, acting as if she was only on her way home after a long day and not breaking into the house of the most important man in magical London. No one could see how tightly she gripped the key to the front door in her pocket.

Laverna slowed and finally came to a halt in front of the gates, she looked them up and down and stood thinking for a moment. She debated whether to pick the lock on the gates or use her wand. Alohomora would be much quicker and she needed to be quick but the spell might set off some sort of alarm, which was not ideal.

Better to start with a Protection Revealing Spell before she settled on anything.

"Protecto revelio!" didn't yield any sort of alarm spells to Laverna. The Potters were either very trusting or very confident that no one would try to enter their house unwelcomed. Or someone had forgotten to put any wards up at the end of the night. Whichever one it was, Laverna sent up a silent thank you for it and quietly unlocked the gates with a flick of her wand.

She hesitated a moment as she looked at the ground on the other side of the gate, the cautious side of her rebelling against the idea of just walking in even though she had proof that there were no wards up. She looked around on the darkened ground in front of her and picked up the first small object she laid eyes on. Laverna turned back to the open gates and lightly tossed the small rock into no man's land and waited.

For a split second she expected a piercing whistle to break through the night air, a blaring siren as the rock touched the ground, anything. But there was nothing.

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and walked on light feet to the front door. She slid in the key that she had taken from James Potter, and slowly, quietly, turned the key until she heard the lock give way. Laverna held her breath as she slowly turned the handle on the door and pushed it open.

Before her stood a long, dark hallway and a set of stairs leading upwards into the second floor of the house. Laverna was fairly certain James Potter would keep his Invisibility Cloak on him at all times so the likeliest spot for it to be would be in James's room, which was a problem.

But there was also the chance that Harry Potter might have been in need of it, which could put the location of the cloak in Harry's office.

 _Or his room_ , Laverna thought to herself as she pursed her lips. Harry's room was an even worse prospect than James's. But there was nothing to do but start searching. She cast a Muffling Charm on her feet and crept into the house, looking into every room as she tried to figure out if it was worth searching.

What Laverna learned as she snooped throughout the quiet, sleeping house, was that there were a lot more relatives present than she had anticipated. And no one had gotten settled in properly. There were trunks stacked everywhere, multiple ones belonging to the same people. Laverna only had a faint notion of who Louis Weasley was but he had five trunks stacked one on top of the other alone.

As it turned out, Laverna never had to break into James's room to look for his cloak. She'd located James's trunk in the midst of all the other belongings and gave a silent cheer as she flipped open the clasps on the lid. The first thing Laverna saw when she opened the trunk were a pair of Batman boxers that she couldn't help but snigger at.

"How embarrassing for him," Laverna commented to herself as she rifled through his clothes. She had discarded most of the contents of his trunk when finally her hand came into contact with something thin and slippery, like water. She watched in awe as her hand disappeared underneath the fabric when she slowly lifted the material to her face.

And then she stopped, squinted her eyes, and frowned.

She brought the cloak closer and looked at it intently. Something felt off and it was definitely something more than her impaired vision. It wasn't just the cloak either; it was everything around her. The darkness no longer felt as empty and quiet as it did when she'd first entered uninvited. Laverna shook the thought from her head though and focused on the cloak in her hands.

It felt right, and it looked right but at the same time, it didn't. Laverna covered her hand with the cloak and peered closely at where her wrist ended and her fingers disappeared. She could've sworn that she saw the faint outline of her fingers. If what she knew about Invisibility Cloaks was right, she shouldn't have been able to see anything.

So why could she see the faintest outline of her hand?

"What are you doing?" said a slow, deep voice right behind her.

_Rule #1: Never get caught._

Laverna cursed.

**Author's Note:**

> i can't believe i have to plan a bank heist now that is all i have to say


End file.
